Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. She has been here several times recently, which is good. Any legislation that strengthens the role of one of our cultural institutions and makes it more accountable is to be welcomed. Members of the public often complain that State organisations are not accountable. These proposals represent a good step forward in addressing that issue. While the independence of the National Concert Hall will continue to be recognised and upheld - it could not function if it were not, in a curatorial fashion, independent - it will now be accountable in respect of its funding and having members of its board brought before Oireachtas committees. In addition, the body will be subject to freedom of information provisions and its accounts will be brought under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. These are important provisions in the current climate.

I do not expect there will be or could be any opposition to the legislation before us today. We in this House always like to take the opportunity to confirm the importance of our country's cultural life and heritage. There is a tendency to assume that the economy - as in the mantra "It's the economy, stupid" - is of most concern to people, but the reality is that our cultural life is incredibly important to people in this country. It is in our DNA in a way I am not sure it is in every country, in so far as it relates to our capacity to articulate ourselves and our vision of the world. It is a very Irish thing. In that context, I would like to see as much assistance as can be given being afforded to all our cultural institutions. I congratulate the Minister on having secured additional funding. I hope our cultural institutions and our cultural life in general will continue to be supported by the Government at all times.

The American ambassador, Mr. Kevin O'Malley, spoke at the opening of the Web Summit about the importance of the cultural relationship between our two countries. Indeed, he has been to the fore in trying to encourage creative dialogue between our two countries. He was in Sligo two weekends ago to attend a debate with the musician Rufus Wainwright, who was performing there, which was organised in collaboration with the American Embassy. The ambassador is keen to open up a dialogue between artists in the United States and their counterparts here across the cultural spectrum. That is a good way for our two countries to discover things we have in common.

It is interesting to consider the history of the National Concert Hall, which is as old as William Butler Yeats. The building was originally constructed to celebrate the International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures in Dublin in 1865. Most of the building was taken down in the late 19th century because it was too expensive to run it. It was dismantled and taken to London, where it was rebuilt as the Albert Palace. When the original concert hall opened in May 1865, its purpose was to celebrate the visual arts in particular, but also industrial products. It has always had a heritage built around culture and, latterly, as part of UCD, it has also had an educational remit.One of the real needs of the concert hall is its outreach programme. It plays a strong role in schools and in the area of health, which I was not aware of. Outreach programmes are notoriously expensive and are difficult to keep going. The National Concert Hall has a programme of music in children's hospitals such as Crumlin, Temple Street, Tallaght and Beaumont. These are the sort of programmes that we want to see being continued. They are particularly important in the area of dementia and Alzheimer's and allow music into the lives of a broad range of people. People often believe that the National Concert Hall is a place exclusively for concerts. The outreach programme will need funding in the future if it is to work with schools, teachers, students and musicians. This is where we can foster and grow the musicians of the future. It is important that the National Concert Hall continues its role of working with communities, particularly with its community choir and working with older people and their orchestra. These are the matters that people forget about. They think of the facade of the National Concert Hall and the great performances that take place there. In this year of Yeats, 2015, two wonderful events took place in September - Beautiful Lofty Things, led by the historian, writer and lover of Yeats, Roy Foster and the following evening, Blood and the Moon, a whole series of new musical pieces inspired by Yeats. I thank the staff and the team at the National Concert Hall for affording us the opportunity to celebrate Yeats there. That shows its capacity to have a broad range of musical interests celebrated at the concert hall. It is not just exclusive music; it tries to provide for the tastes of all kinds of people.

Senator Coghlan talked about the idea of the National Concert Hall being taken around the State. I support that but I wonder how it might happen. We have enjoyed reaching out to the National Gallery and the National Library through the Yeats activities in Sligo in the last number of years. That has been very successful. The Abbey Theatre has also been a partner with us on Yeats day over the last few years. We have not thought of how we might do it with the National Concert Hall. I suspect it might be possible through some of the outreach programmes. Maybe once every year a national concert could be held in another location, such as Kilkenny, Letterkenny, Sligo or Limerick.